The wife and I finally tried SmoQ last night, and here's our reaction in a nutshell:
The Good: My side dish of mashed potatoes with bacon and onion milk gravy; the wife's side of bacon and cheese grits; the waffle portion of my order of chicken and waffles; the complimentary basket of butterscotch corn muffins; our server, Alisa, who was genuinely friendly and helpful (and received a very generous tip indeed).
The Meh: The chicken portion of my order of chicken and waffles (overcooked chicken breast that the breading refused to stay attached to when one so much as waved a fork in its general direction; in other words, when you cut into it, the thing just became a dry, crumbly mess); my wife's side of succotash; the house salad that I ordered with an apparently homemade but very "it-just-got-squeezed-out-of-a-bottle" tasting barbecue ranch dressing.
The Bad: The curly-haired douchenozzle manager with a highly pronounced 'tude who "greeted" us (in only the very loosest interpretation possible of that term) when we walked in the restaurant; the hushpuppies, which were dense and flavorless (unless you consider "greasy" to be a flavor); my wife's brisket, which was as arid as the Mojave.
The Obscene: The fried ribs appetizer. After barely gagging down one of these monstrosities, I was worried that I wouldn't be able to stomach so much as one bite of my entrée (<--this statement is NOT hyperbole). Think dense on top of heavy on top of leaden, all of it enrobed in a coma-inducing, super-sweet glaze, dipped in an unremarkable batter, and deep-fat-fried to within an inch of its life.
Well. At least I can say that I finally tried it.
<message edited by Rabkin on Sat, 09/15/12 8:10 AM>
